Mundel takes Northwest A cross country title
<p>Wildkat harrier Samantha Mundel is carried to the podium by teammates Zayne Brunz, left, and Dalton Nelson, right, to receive her first place medal.</p>
About two miles into the Northwest Class A cross-country meet, there was a slope that ran gently downhill. Wildkat Samantha Mundel took full advantage of it to slide past Polson’s Claudia Hewston and run to her first conference title at the Whitefish Golf Club’s South Course on Oct. 19.
Mundel finished in 18 minutes 51.3 seconds, shaving a few more seconds off the Columbia Falls High School record, which she set earlier this season.
The junior runner seemed to be already thinking about the next race after winning the title.
“I still want to do better,” she said.
Mundel started out the race in third, as Hewston shot out in the lead with Whitefish’s Sarah Latcham in second.
But Mundel kept up the pressure, taking over Latcham on the hilly course and then Hewston.
“I was just going on how I felt,” Mundel said. “I thought (Hewston) was going to catch me, and I started to pick it up.”
Columbia Falls coach Richard Menicke said he was impressed by Mundel’s performance.
“She ran a tremendous race to win it — best girls race I have ever witness by a Kat,” he said.
Wildkat Meredith Stolte also had a nice race, taking eighth at 20:10.7.
On the boys side, the top Columbia Falls runner was James Ratzlaff, who took eighth at 17:05.9. Teammate Zayne Brunz was 10th at 17:19.0. Both qualified for the state meet.
“I was very happy for James to lead the team and gain all conference — it was his season best time,” Menicke said, noting Ratzlaff has been battling injuries all season long.
Gunnar Nabozney, of Frenchtown, won the boys meet in 16:05.8, pacing the field from start to finish. The Whitefish boys and girls dominated the field to win the team titles. The Columbia Falls girls were third, and the boys were fourth.
The teams now travel to the state A meet in Missoula this weekend. The top seven runners on the team race at state.
Other Columbia Falls times included:
Boys
18. Winfield West 18:00.6
19. Glenn Morden 18:03.8
22. Dalton Nelson 18:19.0
24. Storm Kemppainen 18:23.1
29. 19:30.2
Girls
13. Allie Folks 20:49.0
17. Kendra Cahoon 21:48.9
18. Miranda Livingston 22:18.2
20. Sadie Panasuk 22:41.4
26. Morgan Christianson 24:15.2